Seeking religious freedom, the pilgrims fled England and traveled to Holland in 1608. In 1620 they sailed to America. Women, men, and children were willing to leave their homes to brave a wild, new land. They had no shelter but what they built with their own hands. No food but what they grew and shot. No laws but those they made. The Plymouth settlers faced hunger and disease. Not all the Indians they met were friendly. Their supplies ran out. The crops failed. Some colonists gave up and went home. For three years, the colony's survival hung by a thread. But a small core of believers struggled on to establish a new life for themselves in the New World.
